E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Sania Mirza brought in a whiff of youthful breeze to Indian sport when she arrived on tennis horizon. Spunky and self-assured, her powerful forehand had even seeded opponents on their toes. But injuries, and unforced errors on and off the court, have seen her career yo-yo. Her bindaas attitude became a sitting duck and with the media pulling her down as quickly as it hoisted her, it was a matter of time before it all got to the 21-year-old.Still, is that reason enough for her to withdraw from the WTA Bangalore Open for reasons other than tennis?

# This was her best chance to go and show that these distractions do not deter her. The best way to put your detractors on notice is by beating them at their game with yours. That is playing tennis and giving her best on the court. The tennis-loving public still loves her for what she has done for the game and the country.

# Sania is definite to represent the country in the Olympics. By not playing in India and saying she will avoid playing in the country ‘for the time being’, makes one wonder whether she should represent the country at all for the Olympics, which is just six months away.

# It appears that Mahesh Bhupathi, being Sania’s manager/mentor (?) seems to be advising her. Bhupathy, whose tiff with Leander Paes is legendary, had once gone on record saying that ‘he would never like to play for the country again’. Now that Olympics is on the horizon, he has started making the right noises about winning the gold for the country with Paes. Such pick and choose play is not what Sania needs at this juncture in her career. As Naresh Kumar, former Davis cupper and India captain rightly pointed out, “it is not a wise decision by Sania and she should rethink her decision.”

# There are also rumours now of Sania having withdrawn from the Bangalore Open, not because of the flag controversy or the advertising row or her statements on premarital sex, but because of money. Apparently, last year she was given $100,000 (approximately Rs 40 lakh) of the $175,000 prize money. The organisers were unwilling to pay as much this year. If this indeed is true, it Sania and Mahesh are putting a spin on what is a clear commercial motivation.

Sania Mirza has the game, the money and the stature. What she needs is to learn from Anil Kumble and company on how to overcome the odds and not to be led astray by emotions and impulses when representing the country. India could have come back from Australia after the racist label was slapped on Harbhajan Singh. By playing on, staring the bully and beating him at Perth, they created history.

That is what playing for the country is all about. This was more than chak de. Indian tennis, and Sania Mirza, need a dose of that therapy.

27 comments

1. Anil Kumble is a guy
2.He’s been in this business since 1990.
3.He plays a team game with eleven others.
4. He represents the BCCI – a private organization that many think is the roman church of cricket in India.

Let’s get to SM. She’s a girl in a male-dominated society excelling in a sport that requires a certain type of clothing to be worn.She needs to learn no lessons from Kumble. I applaud her bold step to expose the double-standards and hypocrisy that have targeted her.She does not have the backing of any board and neither is she representing her country in official capacity. She did not even enter the tourney in b angalore so the question of pulling out does not even arise. There is no evidence that Mahesh Bhupathi instigated her to take this step. I think by now, it is safe to understand that she is woman enough to take this step herself. The money she earns is justfied given that Tennis is a more expensive sport that Cricket in India. She is technically an employer since she pays salaries to her physio, coach, masseur, trainer, agent and others in her team from the income she receives from playing tournaments and from endorsements. She also pays for their transportation to other countries and for their maintenance.

Not everyone is made alike. Both Anil and Sania are fighters with different approaches. You and I are not in her position to even realize a fraction of the awkwardness she has gone through.

The problem with articles like this is that you are giving too much credibility to what’s being said by the actors in the drama. I suspect there is some brinkmanship going on over some back room deals that journalists will never come to know. Dishing out some elderly Malleswaram uncle type advice is easy, digging into the “real” story is hard.

ONLY CONSISTENCY FROM HER SIDE TILL DATE IS THE MEDIA PUBLICITY , positive / negative.She craves for publicity and her promoters are always looking forward to make the maximum out of HER.The so called sucess seems to have gone to her Head.

I agree that it may not be correct to compare Sania with Anil. But if the all the news about money is true, then it is really not good from her side to give some lame excuse. Lets see whether she will play in Sunfeast open which is supposed to be organized by Bhupathi’s management firm.

If someone missed a point, then it is not about comparing Sania to Anil. It is all about Anils determination in seeing a game through inspite of the hurdles he faced as was evidenced in the aftermath of the Sydney Tests. Only time will tell if that decision was valid or not. But history will always be kind to Anil for he did something inspite of overwhelming odds.

What Sania needs to do is to shut up and play. Not become a Rakhi Sawant ala drama-queen with all this hoopla over flag, jeans etc. We need people like Sania on field, atleast for eye candy. Thats all I care from this article.

The real story is something else. All Tennis Players take what is known as appearance money, which is quite different from Prize Money. Last Year SM reportedly got US$ 1,00,000.00 from SM and even Serena also received the same amount but she upped the ante after her sudden victory at Australia and walked out at the last minute leaving KSLTA is lurche and worrying out how to get the money back ! It is obvious SM asked for more this year. But with Williams Sister in the kitty KSLTA must have said to SM take along walk And she walked out !! All other excuses and euphemism about Nationality is just humbug

I’m glad that she has the courage to stand up against degenerative culture like ours plus shez hot!!
Tennis is a professional sport unlike cricket..It’s a choice that she has made and I don’t think it’s our business to comment on such personal actions!

It might have been better if the article had gotten to the core of the problem like others suggested. Comparing the two sportspersons just for the heck of it does not make sense. The situations faced by SM and AK, the nature of the games they play and the context for which the advice is supposedly given are entirely different.

Yes, I would like to see Sania in a nice outfit. She is getting better while her game is on the mend as well. Smita, I could not disappoint you. You are welcome to wear something similar as Sania off the court. Thanks.

“In December, Mirza, a 21-year-old Muslim, was accused by Indian nationalists of desecrating the national flag after she was caught on camera resting her bare feet on a table next to the Indian colors. Earlier that month there was anger from Muslim groups when she filmed an advertisement at a 17th-century mosque in her home town, the southern city of Hyderabad.

“The cases made front-page news and led to two lawsuits. After the flag incident, Mirza was summoned to appear before a court in Bhopal, to answer a case, filed by a private citizen, under the Prevention of Insult to the National Honor Act. The police are pursuing a case of trespass in relation to the filming in the mosque.

“Her decision to stop playing in her home country has dismayed India’s tennis community, but has also raised deeper concerns about levels of intolerance across the nation.

“Ramachandra Guha, a historian, argued that it was a reflection of ‘the rising power of bigotry and intolerance in Indian society.’

“‘Male chauvinists have taken exception to her dress; religious bigots have protested a picture that has both her and a mosque in the same frame; jingoists have exploded at the (purely accidental) closeness of her feet in another frame to the national flag,’ he wrote in an article for The Telegraph, a newspaper in Calcutta.

Regarding flag controversy, if you ask million indian citizen, 99.9% say its foolish to make this a big issue or they don’t care. Rest file a lawsuit and media hypes it to no extent and people like Sania get much required publicity. sympathy by announcing not to play etc.. If she is a real sportswoman, she’d have ignored these things and played & beaten Williams sisters.

This Sania Mirza should keep her mouth shut and show her mettle on the tennis court, instead of courting controversies for the wrong reasons. To pacify the mulla’s she should offer to play while wearing a burqa and to pacify the nationalists(?) she should wear a t-shirt with a indian flag on it, over the burqa and go into the tennis court. That way everyone is happy.